B.C.’s tourism, trade and investment minister Margaret MacDiarmid cited the province’s targeted marketing campaigns among the factors driving strong increases in tourist traffic to the province in November.
“For sixth months running, we’ve seen increases in international overnight visitors to B.C., and once again we’ve outpaced Canada in this regard,” said MacDiarmid, in a release. “Our ski resorts are experiencing a great season so far, with record snowfall and heightened attention as a result of the 2010 Winter Games – we can expect more great things to come.”
According to figure release on Wednesday by Statistics Canada, the total international overnight arrivals to B.C. rose 7.5% year-over-year in November, while Canada reported growth of 6.3% year-over-year in that month.
In the first 11 months of 2010, including B.C.’s term as Olympics host, more than 4 million international visitor arrived in B.C. – a 3.9% year-over year increase.
Canada reported 2.3% growth in international visitors during the same timeframe.
Overnight customs entries from the U.S. into B.C. rose 10.9% year-over-year in November, compared with a 6.7% rise in nationwide entries from south of the border.
Overnight visitor arrivals from Asia-Pacific countries rose 2.5% year-over-year in November,
In the first 11 months of 2010, Asia-Pacific arrivals rose 11.2%, representing 750,718 visitors.
Arrivals from China rose 10.4% year-over-year in November.